Introduction

The more time I spend in the British Virgin Islands, the more I learn about the cuisine of the territory and the unique, locally grown ingredients that make up the cuisine. This cookbook represents the full spectrum of delicacies available here, provided by chefs who create daily specialties for the visitors and residents of the islands.

Each photo shoot took me and the aLookingGlass team to a different breathtaking locale in the BVI—the hillside of Tortola’s North Shore for staggering sunsets, the beachfront of Cane Garden Bay, popular marinas and anchorages throughout the islands, villas perched on oceanfront cliffs, intimate alcoves in dimly lit restaurants, secluded bays aboard a daysail charter, and even the top deck of the most infamous floating bar and restaurant in the Caribbean.

The book opens on the hills above Trunk Bay with a trip to an organic farm replete with fruits, vegetables and herbs. This fresh encounter sets the tone for the rest of the cookbook which features recipes prepared with locally available ingredients such as avocado, banana, breadfruit, christophine, conch, key limes, lemongrass, lobster, mango, mint, papaya, pineapple, pumpkin, rabbit, sorrel and tamarind. The BVI chefs give readers an opportunity to make true Caribbean dishes with Caribbean ingredients—learning how the flavours mingle with each other.

The range of culinary difficulty in Taste spans from quick, easy recipes to complex, epicurean challenges for BVI weddings. Some of the more complicated dishes include potted rabbit with truffle butter and rabbit spring rolls; pumpkin-crusted ahi tuna with pumpkin wasabi mousse, spicy baby arugula salad and sorrel foam; and seafood tonnarelli with black red-snapper fagottini, but there are still plenty of recipes for those who simply desire to know how to cook the perfect Anegada lobster or how to denaturize Caribbean conch. To complement the chef’s enchanting creations, Caribbean Cellars provided wine-pairing expertise to the recipes, keeping in mind what wines work best in this climate but are still globally available to foreign readers.

The recipes in this hardcover cookbook highlight delectable, fresh combinations, and the stunning photography—taken on location by Dan O’Connor in most cases—captures the joy of eating such dishes in the BVI, so aspiring chefs who take the book home can imagine eating dinner while watching the sunset from Cooper Island or Zion Hill or from any of the dozens of locales whose chefs contributed their recipes to Taste.